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The Museum of Broken Promises
The Museum of Broken Promises
Elizabeth Buchan | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am so excited to be part of the Book Buzz for The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan. This lovely book is out on 02nd April, so don’t forget to grab your copy!

This book is quite emotional and heart-breaking from the very beginning until the very end. Based in Europe, in two timelines between now and 1985, we are witnesses to cold war, politics, fight for freedom and an extraordinary love story.

Today, Laure is living in Paris and she owns The Museum of Broken Promises - a place of wonder and sadness. Every object in the museum has been donated and each represents a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. Laure also has hidden objects of her own in there, from her own youth.

Back in 1985, Laure is in Prague, running away after her dad suddenly passes away. But her life here is very confusing. She is struggling to comprehend the dark politics that are taking over the city. But then she meets a young musician. And her love for him is forbidden and causes trouble and terrible consequences.

It is only years after having created the museum that Laure can finally come to terms with her past and celebrate the love she is feeling!

My Thoughts:
This is a very emotional book and I have learned that I need to be in a certain mood in order to be able to fully appreciate it. This is one of those books that leaves a tiny mark in your heart that you will always carry with you.

The story is amazing, we are witnessing a great life full of memories and stories of love, fight for freedom, betrayals, fears, ups and downs. It is so realistic that will make you shiver at times.

I have to admit, I found myself slightly confused at the beginning, trying to figure out which timeline I am currently in, but after a few chapters, I am able to make a difference and get a clearer picture of the story.

I loved the idea of this Museum of Broken Promises. It made me think of what object I could maybe leave there to represent my grief.

I have to admit, I didn’t truly connect with Laure as a main character. She seemed too closed in her own world and her sharing her story in the way that she did was very contradicting to me.

I loved Tomas though. He was my absolute favourite, the hero of this book.
  
My Spy (2019)
My Spy (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Family
STX made headlines when they agreed to sell their upcoming film “My SPY” to Amazon so the movie could debut on the streaming service versus waiting for the highly uncertain time when audiences will be able to return to theaters in significant numbers to make films profitable.

The movie stars Dave Bautista as a C.I.A. agent named JJ. JJ was a former Special Forces member who joined the agency after his military career ended. After an operation does not go as planned; JJ’s boss David Kim (Ken Jeong) questions whether JJ is right for the type of work that is required.

JJ is assigned with an overzealous analyst named Bobbi (Kristen Schaal) to conduct surveillance on a single mother named Kate (Parisa Fitz-Henley) and her nine-year-old daughter Sophie (Chloe Coleman).

Kate Sophie had just moved from Paris and are struggling to adapt to the new situation. It seems that Sophie’s father was deeply involved in all sorts of illegal operations and JJ and Bobbi are keeping an eye on them to see if their uncle attempts to contact them as he’s a key figure in an ongoing plutonium arms deal.

Things take an unexpected turn when the precocious Sophie figures out that their apartment is loaded with surveillance gear and soon tracks it to an adjacent apartment and confronts JJ and Bobbi.

Unwilling to have to admit to his superiors that their cover was blown by a nine-year-old girl; JJ soon becomes Sophie’s new friend as she forces him to take her ice-skating and to appear at a school career day as she is desperate to make friends following her move.

This arrangement causes issues with Bobbi and she believes that JJ needs to be training her in the finer aspects of his career.

Further complicating matters is a growing attraction between JJ and Kate thanks to Sophie repeatedly finding ways for her mother and JJ to be together.

While most viewers will be able to see where the film is heading; the enjoyable cast and the chemistry between them makes the movie rise above standard family comedies.

Bautista does a great job poking fun at his action persona and clearly showed in his “Guardians of the Galaxy” performances that he is certainly capable of mixing comedy and action.

While the film does not offer much in the way of surprises; it does offer some very charming and enjoyable moments with enough humor to make it an enjoyable viewing experience for the entire family.

3.5 stars out of 5
  
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Natasha Khan recommended Blue by Joni Mitchell in Music (curated)

 
Blue by Joni Mitchell
Blue by Joni Mitchell
1971 | Folk, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
9.2 (6 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I was only about 13 when I heard it and it was another one that I played a lot in my bedroom. There was a trilogy of females, which was Joni Mitchell's Blue, Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love and Bjork's Debut that I discovered when I was 12 and obviously had a huge impact on me. But Joni Mitchell, for me, her voice is like an instrument, the same as Bjork's - I just loved hearing a woman's voice that sounded so free and was doing weird things to my brain, pulling it around. How do you even talk about something like this? You just end up saying a load of cliches! There's songs like 'River' and 'Blue' and I didn't know anything really as a 13-year-old about California and Laurel Canyon and the psychedelic 60s and what had happened to everybody, the disenchantment they maybe felt later on. I didn't really understand the background of that, yet there was this woman coming out of my speaker, her feminine energy and her freedom, her expression, her unapologetic rawness, again, and the beauty and competence, and weird tunings, it all completely made sense to me. It all sounded like this amazing place that smelt like pine trees and had golden, yellow sunshine and long hair and tapestries and curtains and cats and guitars. I thought: "What is this place that this woman is talking about?" Actually it's just this universe inside of her, she's like this amazing building full of beautiful things, so complex and so deep and intellectual. I just think she's fully competent on so many levels! I was listening to Carole King, Tapestry, at the time, and that's another beautiful record, but Joni Mitchell's is just emotionally more complex. It was meandering and had movements and parts to it and her voice would soar. There's that bit where she's saying, "hell's the hippest way to go, I don't think so but I'm going to take a look around it": there's that onset of disenchantment, where she's sick of this bullshit, and Joni Mitchell's so good at seeing through the bullshit - it's not this throwaway, idealistic, hippy kind of thing, she's always burrowing a little bit under the surface. As a young girl, hearing women talk about travelling, going on an aeroplane, missing California, being in Paris, seeing some guy playing guitar and writing a love note on a napkin to her. It's like good life experience, listening to that through someone else."

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